I Thought Imaginary Friends Go Away Once You Reach 9?
by motoroilfreeway
Summary: Oh, they do. It just happens that yours is not. And it looks like its not going anywhere. riren. Reincarnation au (ish). Ghost!Levi. WARNING: RAPE ELEMENTS
1. Prolouge

**A/N: Special thanks to Welcome to Nightvale's episode about the faceless old woman. If I'm not listening to that on my way back home I wouldn't be writing this now, do I .  
Cheers for Res_CVX for taking the time for thoroughly checking this part for errors and stuff. You guys owe her the rest of this fic.**

* * *

On the 25th of March, Carla gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

She decided to name him Eren-for some reason the name just suddenly came up to her head, like some sort of a whisper of the wind-on the day of the baby shower when the guests asked eagerly about the soon-to-be-born baby boy's name.

Eren, the name failed to ring a bell and she never heard of the word before but that's what came out of her mouth that day instead of the name she chose for her son. She could have corrected everyone at the party, but thinking about it, "Eren," Carla remembered whispering the name to hear it roll out of her mouth the second time, maybe she'll call him Eren from now on. She doubts Grisha would disagree; her husband already assured her that the child's name is up to her.

Luckily for the couple, Eren grew up just fine with little to no problems in walking, talking, and understanding the things around him that started piquing his curiosity the more coherent he spoke.

Well, everything was fine was what they thought until Eren had an imaginary friend.

Eren was two when he started talking by himself whenever he was left alone or playing. They would usually hear him say a word the couple presumed to be _corporal_-a word that took them days in deciphering from little Eren's still underdeveloped speech- which the Jaeger couple found strange, no one taught him that word. Carla was sure because she never allowed her son near the television unless she can supervise, and she's the only one other than her husband who takes care of Eren, and none of them can see any explanation how their son knew such word from.

Eren, at age four, is as energetic as ever, and now that he was old enough, they enrolled him to a preschool a 10-minute car ride away from home. Some weeks after Eren's admission, the preschool called and asked her to come to the school at once.

Carla was taken back to find out that apparently, Eren was caught talking to his classmates. The problem being Eren's choice in vocabulary, so bad that their assigned teacher can't help herself but gape at the boy as he went and talked about his imaginary adventure as a superhero fighting evil giants, a disturbing choice of adjectives thrown left and right every once in a while.

When confronted-most especially about where and whom did he learn these from from an enraged Carla-Eren, in tears, told them that that is how the corporal told him he was like before.

The boy's response raised questions not only from Carla but also from the teachers involved in Eren's little incident. None of the teachers managed to name this man Eren talks about, much to Carla's despair-although she remembered Eren say "corporal" a few years ago when he started talking.

Everyone soon concluded that this coporal was Eren's some sort of an imaginary friend. Despite the ongoing mystery behind Eren's appaling choice of words, the school let the problem slide with Eren swearing to never speak of the words again.

At age 7, Eren came home from school proudly showing Carla his drawing of the corporal-which may grow into a problem if Eren has not gotten over having imaginary friends at his age-a man wearing some sort of a tie, knee-high boots, and belts-which she was sure are belts upon seeing her boy play with their belts and tie it around his limbs in a way similar to his drawings, saying that he wants to know what it feels like to be the corporal. The corporal's clothing are not commonly worn, not in a fashion like this, anyway and she continues to wonder where and how did Eren came up with these for a friend. She poured her questions to the thought that kids are highly imaginative, because Grisha, for a doctor, cannot give a logical explanation himself about their child's behaviour and told her to wait it out and bring him to a specialist if he were not to grow this behaviour out.

Eren was nine when they finally took action and had Eren checked. Sessions later, they never heard a word about a short, scowling man in belts and leather boots who complains about cleanliness and carries an appalling vocabulary.

Or so they thought.

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**E/N: believe it or not its /roughly/ based on this "real" ghost story I have read when I was I think 12 (when I was on that horror/paranormal phase and researched the shit out of ghosts and demons and all that crazy shit)**

**and right now I'm taking the chance to tell you that I don't know how make my characters happy in a normal way so get the hint (tho its already in the tags and warnings lol)**

**also if you're wondering how the fuck did I ever managed to remember something like that is to be blamed on my selective memory, I guess because I dunno how either**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Thanks to Res_CVX betaing the first part. Any errors on the last one are all mine.**

**And wowwowow? I updated something within 10 days? ME? HOW?**

**OH WAIT ITS CHRISTMAS. RIGHT. What does have to do with me updating something**

A sheet of paper was casually slid onto Eren's table.

Eren paused at nibbling his sandwich to glance at whoever was responsible—-Armin—-who was peering at him with a friendly grin plastered on his face.

Eren looked at the paper again, sandwich still half-bitten in his mouth, and raised a thick eyebrow at the content before completely biting a piece of his sandwich, and opened his mouth to speak. "Paranormal investigations club membership form…?" he asked, turning to look at Armin in the eye.

"Yep," Armin replied cheerfully as he nodded and stared back at him. This made Eren gulp; the piece he had bit off from the sandwich earlier that wasn't properly chewed made it harder for his throat to swallow and almost clogged his pharynx.

"Why?"

At this, Armin moved to sit next to him. Eren moved to the side to give Armin more space to sit on. He was still looking at Armin.

"Because it's fun!"

"Uh….no."

"But Eren!" Armin whined, frowning at him while tugging at his free hand that was not holding his unattended, half-eaten sandwich.

Armin was a member—er, President—- of the Paranormal Investigations Club. Eren knew his friend's interest in things that could not be explained by science like ghosts and monsters ever since they were children. He remembered the time they almost got suspended in elementary school for sneaking into their school one night. In Eren's defense though, he had been trying to convince Armin that sneaking into the school at night is not a good idea, and oh_ boy, ain't he right_.

It's not like he had anything against Armin's choice of hobbies—-he really didn't—-it's just that for the longest time since he knew the blond, all that "paranormal" stuff had done nothing but cause them trouble. At least now, it has been slightly lessened because of Mikasa.

To be honest, he didn't really mind joining Armin's club just to make the other happy.

There's just something off with the proposal. They already spent the half of their term and Armin chose this time to convince him to join? Why not the first weeks of the term when the clubs were actively seeking members?

After a while when Armin decided that he wouldn't get anything close to "yes," from him, he stopped, sat up properly next to Eren, head facing straight ahead with serious eyes.

"We need your house for our next episode."

"Huh," was Eren's response.

Armin turned towards him again, grabbed his shoulders, and resorted to shaking him this time.

"Come on, Eren! Aunt Carla and Uncle Grisha left for their anniversary yesterday, and they'll be out for a week, right? Your house is spacious; I got pics of some orbs dwelling there before and some cold spots, Eren! We promise to not touch anything; we'll even hangout in your room instead so we could keep the mess—-if there's anything—to a minimum! You can even follow us wherever we go! And, and, we'll keep your identity secret, if that's what you're worried about! Also there's this—-"

Eren shoved his sandwich into Armin's mouth.

Armin almost choked. He managed to pull the sandwich out immediately, and drank from the bottle of juice Eren handed him afterwards. He coughed a bit though, and Eren patted his back in apology as he mumbled something that made Armin think a piece of the sandwich must have gotten up to clog his ears—he's not that sure if it's possible, studying the human body is not really something he found interesting. He would if they're dead, without a physical form, though he doubted his biology teacher, or anyone for that matter, would give him a proper answer if he dare ask them out of curiosity—-he looked up at Eren to ask—-

"Wait, what?"

"I said, okay, sure, whatever; just make sure your guys won't touch a thing and run around the house without me in sight. Mom will have my head if she notices something off…"

Eren almost choked when Armin moved to trap him in the tightest hug he'd ever received (from Armin, anyway because Mikasa always wanted to choke Eren whenever she hugged him).

"Oh, and Jean's coming too." Armin told him like how someone would talk about the weather.

"Do I want to know _why_ you felt have the need to tell me that?" Eren asked, his face darkening and his features soured. Just thinking about that horse-face never failed to ruin his day. Now he even lost his appetite (maybe Armin was to blame, but they are talking about _Jean_ right now, so he'll go with that).

"You'd rather not, actually." Armin gave him _that_ smile again. That smile that Armin did whenever Jean walks their way; that smile that Armin did whenever he and Jean are about to start another brawl but stopped by a hair's width; that smile that Armin did whenever he talked about things about Jean that is directly for him. Just seeing Armin smile like that at him like Armin knew something he didn't was making Eren want to stand up from their seat right now to go find a certain someone and break his nose.

He didn't though, because the bell rang, signaling the students that break time was over and it's time to get back to class.

Eren groaned and Armin smiled as he moved to stand before Eren, extending his arm towards him. Eren moved to grab the arm, assuming that Armin intended to help him up only to look up at Armin's face in confusion when the blond started moving their joined hands up and down. A businessman-like smile plastered on his youthful face.

"It is nice making business with you, Mr. Jaeger. I am looking forward for more to come in the near future."

With that Armin turned away from him and walked out of the mess hall.

Eren swore; looks like he's about to skip.

—-

It was Friday when the club came into an agreement with Eren that they will spend the night at Eren's house—-in Eren's room, of course—-maybe shoot a bit for their episode, and do the rest the next day 'till 5-6 in the afternoon.

The Paranormal Investigators Club is composed of Armin, Jean, Mina, Ymir, Thomas, Sasha, Connie, Reiner, and Millius. He knew them all, especially Jean and Sasha and Connie—-he started thinking the latter two as one entity because he never saw these two apart except when one of them is in the toilet—- the rest are by names, and he heard all about them from Armin and through their club's paranormal study videos uploaded onto their official website which gets a new episode every two weeks.

Mikasa, Krista, Annie, and Bertholdt were staying over too. Mikasa, because she said she felt "left out" with Eren and Armin having a sleepover ("We are not having a _sleepover_, Mikasa!") and not inviting her over (so she invited herself in, came earlier than the others, brought her own blankets, pillows, change of clothes, and everything else one would need at a sleepover). The other three came because their parents told them to keep an eye on their friends, who happened to be members of said club.

Eren had a hard time dealing with the other three, because this was the first time they were meeting, and also maybe because he felt like he needed to sleep with one eye open tonight.

Annie was the quiet type, who simply spoke a stiff, curt "Annie," with a quick raise of one of her hands out of her hoodie's jacket in some sort of a wave, before putting her hand back in. She always looked bored, and the pale shade of her blue eyes matched with her half lidded eyes to form a bored stare that crept Eren out. She also looked like she's hiding something big inside her loose hoodie—-like some buff figure like Mikasa's. He had been exposed enough to Mikasa and her weight lifting and kick-boxing to know their types.

Bertholdt was the tall, dark haired, lanky guy who introduced himself as "Bertholdt. You can call me Bert, if you want…" before scratching the back of his head. He was sweating a lot despite the cold, and told him that he came with Reiner and Annie. Together they make a weird bunch, but it's not like Eren had the right to say that with his friendship with Mikasa and Armin now, does he?

Krista was the short, blonde, petite girl whose smiles and personality can make men like Reiner say "Marry me," or "Just marry me already," because even he cannot deny that Krista is a keeper. He couldn't approach her properly, because he always felt daggers being thrown in his way in the form of Ymir's sharp stares whenever he talked or merely looked at Krista's way.

He was also warned to keep an eyeful watch on Sasha. If she vanished from your line of vision or from Connie's side, there's a 100% chance that she had ran off to find your kitchen, and be ready to kiss your food supplies goodbye—-Eren was aware that Sasha is also called Potato Girl by his batch mates because on the first day of their freshman year, Sasha was punished to run around the tracks throughout their gym period that day for sneaking and stealing freshly steamed potatoes from the school's cafeteria and eating it in Mr. Shadis's, their gym teacher's, class. Sasha ate anything, someone from their group told him. He made sure to write that in his mental notes.

Since Eren's room was not enough to accommodate them all—-and Eren needed to keep an eye on them, just like what they agreed on—-they decided to sleep in the Jaeger house's (more like a mansion, Sasha said) living room.

Before changing into their sleep wears and calling it a night, everyone decided—-Eren and the other four simply observed—-that they should start shooting some scenes for their episode, remembering some of their subscribers complaining that doing a paranormal investigation by day is not really a good recommendation, since they believed that ghosts are mostly active at night. It also emits a scary vibe, someone said.

For a club with members of only 9, they sure do have the equipment.

That's how he found out that it's all on Armin, _again_. Of course, it's Armin; what else is there for Eren to expect. Armin would just click, click, and click in the computer and type in their bank account to get the things he needed, no matter how expensive they were. His parents could afford them. The expenses barely made a dent in his family's savings, and his parents never gave a fuck on what their son does with their money, as long as they hear from Armin's grandpa that he is doing well.

Armin's parents were busy all the time, travelling the world because that's what their job demands, leaving Armin to grow up under his grandpa's care. Armin was a smart kid, and he understood at a young age that his parents were simply doing their duties as parents to work and provide Armin the things he needed—-that's what Armin told him years ago when they were younger when Eren almost exploded when he found out that Armin's parents "don't care about him".

Eren talked to Armin's parents from time to time through Skype whenever he visited Armin and he happened to be talking to Mr. and Mrs. Arlert. They were good people, Eren supposed.

He had never seen their equipments up close before, so he can't help himself as he felt his eyes fall into the foreign-and-_expensive_-looking gadgets they carefully take out of its containers as Armin takes out a small sheet of paper and reads the names of the equipment. Expect nothing less from Armin to keep a log of their equipments before and after each use.

They started setting their video cameras in the living room—-they cleared out their things—-and started with Armin, the club's President, doing a quick introduction about what their latest "expedition" is all about.

The other members were responsible for handling a specific type of equipment they use in gathering data and reading the area.

Connie usually handled one of the video cameras, but he occasionally switches with Sasha's DVP whenever Sasha grabs a snack. She just chews too loud and it makes it hard for them to review the recordings afterwards.

Armin handles one of the DVPs and a DSLR camera, Jean is their skeptic and also stands the keeper of their spare batteries. Reiner and Ymir handles the last two video cameras while Thomas, Mina, and Millius handles the IR, EMF, and another one of their DSLRs.

They would usually split into two or three groups and roam the area but since Eren only agreed under the condition that he supervised them, the nine of them settled to using only one of each piece of equipment, and the tasks were divided unequally: "as long as you can handle using them at the same time, you do it" and the rest settled to taking notes and observe their surroundings depending on their five senses.

They took a lot of pictures, measured the base temperatures of each room they were going (allowed) to observe, and took a few samples of audio recordings. They planned to review them all after they were done with the entire search and called it a night.

Eren and Mikasa had to get up as early as 6 am to help Armin prepare breakfast for their guests.

They are woken up one by one, Sasha and Connie surprisingly (in Eren's opinion, anyway) the ones who rose immediately after being awoken and helped in tugging the others awake and were forced to go help in preparing.

Eren never thought their table for twelve would finally be filled to the point Eren had to pull another chair for himself.

They ate their breakfast in silence; their dishes were brought to the sink one by one before they shared duties in cleaning the table and taking care of the dishes.

It was already 9 when the team decided they resume their filming and officially start the hunt.

They stuck to the same rule they had last night and Armin carried the EMF, DVR, and the thermal scanner. The DSLR was given to Mina because they need as many shots as they can this time; Eren's house is just that big and spacious to not see orbs dwelling somewhere.

This time, they conducted things more thoroughly. They made sure to take a shot of every nook and cranny of everything they are allowed to explore.

They almost squealed in excitement-mostly Sasha, Connie and Ymir are whooping in amusement-when the door to Eren's room closed, only to "aw" in disappointment when it was just the wind, after Jean's unbiased skepticism and a strong gust of wind blowing at their faces the moment they reopened the door.

Other than that, the shoot went smoothly and within an hour or so, they had the equipments back in their places and had their laptops set up reviewing the data they've gathered. The editing will come later because they have the cameras rolling during the reviews; it's a part of their show.

Everyone-specially Armin-were saddened to find that there are not even a speck of white or colored bright little spot anywhere in everything they took in the house. Armin swore he took a lot once, when he first used his new DSLR one time he went to Eren's; he even gladly showed everyone the picture he took and compared the pictures of the spot they took now.

The thermal scan and EMF are useless in summary because they got nothing but glitches and their batteries-even the spares-are immediately drained, to their surprise and suspicion. They decided to investigate on the power drainage later after they are done scanning their recordings.

The recordings, to their happiness, caught something.

Thomas was just half-assedly fiddling with the device-rewind then play, fast forward, roll the recording a bit slower-when they heard it.

The recording was so sudden, Thomas had to call Ymir and ask her to try and see if she hears something coherent.

Ymir did and they called the others; their only camera rolling turned and ran to them from the rest who were discussing heatedly about their theories on how their batteries died faster than usual.

They ran the part where Thomas and Ymir swore they heard something over and over; sometimes slowing the speed. Everyone-including Eren and the other three-watched in silence as Mina rewind and unrewind the DVR.

Then they all heard it.

_-ack—_

It sounded like a last syllable of a word before it was completely taken over by the static.

They are close now. They can't let this go. Not now that they got a potential EVP for the first time they started hunting.

They replayed the whole part. Over and over, trying to get a glimpse of what that syllable means or where it was from.

To their amused bewilderment, it sounded like someone is saying "fuck".

It was weird but that is what everyone agreed they heard no matter how many times they replay the recording.

Even Jean got nothing to say as their skeptic, because they all swore that no one would swear during filming; they're trying to keep it PG, no matter how ridiculous that notion is.

Curious-the four included-as to why this ghost would say such words, they checked the question being asked before its answer.

"Care to explain why you would choose to dwell here?"

A proper question, but listening closely they hear whispers overlapping: "What's a ghost's favorite drink?"

"What?"

"Boos." Then was followed by a soft snigger before the reply with a word "fuck" came.

"Who said that?" someone in their group asked after listening but received nothing but embarrassed laughs and shaking shoulders.

"So the ghost listened to _that_ instead of Reiner's question,"

"What the fuck, man."

"Wait!"

Armin replayed a part of the recording a few seconds before the word "fuck" comes.

They got more.

"Woah, good job, Armin!" Armin cried as Connie gave him three strong pats to the back.

"_What the fuck_" is what the DVR caught after a lot of time listening into it.

The voice was somehow deep, and it was clear enough that none of them could have faked something like this; everyone swore to honesty, they are as surprised as anyone else right now.

They eagerly scanned the rest of the recordings, but got nothing. They had no time to feel disappointed this time with the recording they got though.

The episode was ended after that, everyone cheered and happily congratulated each other for the job well done. All thanks to Eren and his house, they said.

They left the Jaeger mansion dreaming about higher hits and subscribers by the time they have their episode uploaded.

Due to their excitement they forgot about the drained batteries.

**E/N: **Well, for those who had no idea how these things work, what Armin's club did was what we usually call ghost hunting, only this time they had it filmed for people to see.

The idea about the Paranormal Investigations Club is based on this club my lab mate tried to get me to join with my friend. It's his roommate's idea and they need at least 4 more people to join to make a request to get it legalized in my university. I didn't join because we know what happens to people who like to poke these things with very long sticks, right? Yep. Spoilers, wow. Sorry. The thing with the site is also based from that org. I don't think they made it, I never heard any orientations about it afterwards.

Also for those who don't know, **DVR = Digital Voice Recorder**

**DSLR = are those big cameras with detachable flashes and ultra high quality stuff photographers usually use. And they are hella expensive. My friend bought one because her course demands it and I cried when she showed me the receipt. I'm happy with my digicam, thanks.**

**EVP = Electronic Voice Phenomena. Those are recordings you got from **_**ghosts**_**. Investigators usually ask questions and pause for at least 15-30 seconds for the ghost to give their replies.**

**Thermal Scanners = to measure the temps (duh). Ehhh its because they believe ghosts/entities leave temps too so yea. I'm not really sure on how I'm supposed to explain this one…**

**EMF = Electro Magnetic Field Meters. They are those stuff electricians carry. They are used in investigations because it is believed that ghosts emit magnetic fields and use energies to manifest. That's why they bring extra batteries. Ever wonder why your phone drains its battery faster than usual? Ghosts are said to tend to absorb energy from gadgets to get enough energy to manifest like create an EVP or move things (those are poltergeists). EMFs are not that reliable if there are power lines nearby. Which is almost everywhere, right?**

Ehhh did I get all the shit covered because if forgot something or your curious about something, feel free to ask me, I don't bite, I swear. Beware because I'm kind of rusty with these stuff tho…5 years is a long time.


End file.
